


One Ear Open

by zeebee823



Series: The Pound [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, First Meetings, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, not explicitly discussed so to speak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27904633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeebee823/pseuds/zeebee823
Summary: As Jason and as Robin, he touched the lives of more people than he knew.Those people haven't forgotten him, despite Gotham's best efforts.
Series: The Pound [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043346
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	One Ear Open

The lobby of The Pound was organized chaos. Numbers wasn’t sure what to make of it, but from what he’d been told, he was in the right spot. Normally Numbers wouldn’t be one to dwell on the past, but normally the past didn’t come back to life and repay a nonexistent debt. Affirmation that his suspicions were correct would ease his conscience, as well. 

“Oh, hi. Welcome to The Pound. How can I help you?” A woman in a hoodie and jeans appeared in a doorway, wiping her hands on a rag as she walked to the main desk. She leaned against the side, one elbow supporting her weight and her feet crossed at the ankles. Numbers wasn’t entirely sure he could take her in a fight, but that wasn’t a surprise. 

“You’re Sarah Urban, right?” Tactful, he was not. Jason had always been more sociable, having given Numbers a hand in the first place. Jason probably didn’t think that a meeting between his childhood acquaintances would eventually result from that. 

Her brows furrowed in suspicion. “Depends on who’s asking.” 

“I - you - people call me Numbers, but that’s not.” Numbers closed his eyes, gathered his courage, put his hands firmly in his pockets and met her gaze. The best way to connect with fellow Gothamites was by laying all your cards on the table. “I knew Jason Todd before he was adopted by Bruce Wayne.” 

Sarah froze. Giving him a critical once-over, she walked past him to the front door. “Go to my office - the rightmost door behind the desk. Sit down if you want, but don’t touch anything. I’m going to lock up first.” 

Following orders being a habit he’d built up in order to survive, Numbers did as he was told and sat in one of the folding chairs before the desk in the office. The light in the lobby dimmed, and Sarah appeared, firmly shutting the office door behind her. 

“So, you’re a Crime Alley kid?” She sat in the chair behind the desk. 

“Yeah, Jason and I met at Ma Gunn’s.” 

Sarah barked out a laugh, and leaned back in her chair. “Oh he hated that place. Sure, getting steady food was nice and all, but he was always too independent for that type of thing.” 

“Yeah. I took a shot of rock salt for him back in the day.” Numbers paused, and Sarah waited, her gut telling her he was going somewhere with this. “Did you ever… know, or hear, or confirm, or learn, I don’t know the right word for this. His nighttime activities?” 

Sorrow crossed Sarah’s face, her eyes looking past Numbers. “I figured it out quickly enough, but never got to talk to him about it.” Her eyes refocused on him, processing. “Considering how you introduced yourself, I’d bet you figured it out before I did.” A beat. Sarah leaned forward, her forearms on the desk. “The cover story Wayne concocted was bullshit.” Her tone was heavy, and Numbers decided not to touch her issues with Jason’s foster father with a ten foot pole. He stayed silent, letting her break it. Talking about the people behind the masks was always tricky. 

“Call me morbid, but I always wondered how he died.” She met his gaze, looked him over, still sussing him out. “I’m guessing the bird’s death was a taboo topic for Batman’s rogues?” 

“Yeah. I vaguely remember Ivy saying something about ‘having standards’ when asked about it by an enthusiastic college student.” He looked to the side of the room, where there was a window with a shitty view. “I hate to think it, but I’m more mad at Wayne for not considering that his newest adoption’s friends might want to say goodbye.” 

“Especially if we never got to in the first place.” A beat, in which they both regretted things not said. 

“As much as I love remembering Jason, I’m guessing that’s not why you’re here.” Sarah was leaning back in her chair once more. Her guard was up, and Numbers grabbed the receipt, his phone, and the backup recorder. He had no idea how she would respond. 

“I think that Jason is alive.” A switchblade appeared in Sarah’s hand practically out of thin air, and Numbers inwardly cringed. Under her sharp gaze, he continued. 

“Three months ago, I was warned to stay inside, to protect my head and stay out of things that were none of my business if I wanted to live. Standard threatening note. Two days ago when I walked into Santo Deli, I learned that my sandwich had already been paid for. The cashier told me that a black-haired guy had paid for it about an hour ago. She was told to say ‘a sandwich is better than a handshake, and both are better than a fist.’” Numbers brought himself back to the office. “When Jason was patching me up after I’d taken the rock salt meant for him, I told him that he was the first kid to offer me a handshake instead of a fist.” He met Sarah’s eyes. “So far as I know, you’re the third person that knows of that story. I never told anyone about it. So hearing that from the cashier was a shock.” 

Sarah held his gaze, and eventually nodded. “I’m guessing that you got camera and audio?” 

Numbers nodded, and fumbled with the phone. Unlocking it, he went to the video, set it down with the screen towards Sarah, and pressed play. 

They both watched as a black-haired man, about six feet tall, walked into the deli. The camera caught his voice, and Sarah froze as he greeted the cashier and made his request. He slipped the cashier a fifty and left the deli as calmly as he’d entered it, as if he hadn’t stirred up emotions that Sarah hadn’t let herself think about in years. The video ended, and Numbers continued. 

“The apartment above the deli was broken into, and the remains of a gunfight were evident. GCPD didn’t do much beside collect the remaining casings - I nabbed one out of curiosity and paranoia - but a friend of mine was able to enhance the audio that could be overheard by the camera pointed at the safe.” He met her eyes, and she nodded. He placed down the recorded and pressed play. 

Two voices came out of the recorder, after a crash and thirteen gunshots. The first one Sarah didn’t recognize, but she could easily connect the second one to the black-haired man from the bodega. The clip was short, but she was standing by the end of it. She began pacing behind her desk. Numbers looked on sympathetically. After a moment, she turned to him. 

“Why are you telling me this?” 

“We both deserved to know.” 

A beat passed, and Numbers stood as well. He grabbed the back of the copy of the receipt and scribbled his number on it. By the time he raised his head, Sarah had regained her composure, and met his gaze steadily. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I’ll need at least two days to process this. Any chance you’d be willing to do some volunteer math after that?” Her voice was just a hint unsteady, and Numbers shot her a smile, his hand on the door handle. 

“Using my skills for something not crime-related sounds great. I’ll talk to you in a week?” 

“Sure. Be safe.” 

“You too.” The door shut behind Numbers, casual as anything, as if he hadn’t brought a revelation that Sarah was still reeling from. She wasn’t sure about the Red Hood being Jason, but if Numbers had been willing to seek her out, he’d probably be the kind of person who would be willing to manage The Pound while she was otherwise occupied. Adding Numbers as a piece on the board would solve all kinds of problems, and she hoped he wouldn’t hold her actions against her too harshly.

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a series, and mentioned things will hopefully make sense when I post the other parts.   
> Please comment and/or kudos if you like it!


End file.
